Retiring as an accidental landlord

[sm7940333]

After nearly 10 years as an accidental landlord, I am happy to share I am out of the rental game. I'm not the only one heading for the exit judging by recent posts. After learning so much from this forum over the years, thought I would share my story & learnings along the way.

Some background: My then girlfriend (now wife) purchased a nice (small) house close to a city centre at the peak of the boom (4Q 2006). It was a lovely home. Then little people started to arrive & we quickly outgrew the house. Unfortunately, property prices collapsed & we couldn’t sell. So, we started our unplanned journey as a landlord in 2012…

Financially manageable but another job to be done: Thanks to the tracker mortgage, it was financially manageable. We didn’t raise the rent every year, so after +4 years with current tenant we were behind market rates. Furthermore, it was an old house. Thus, we typically got a call on cold, wet Friday nights that the boiler (or something else) had stopped working etc. We’re in the squeezed middle – busy with 3 kids and aging parents as well as a high-pressure job. So after a long week this was another ask / job to be done. While we outsourced most of the maintenance / fixes, we did initially call out to the house to understand the issue so we could explain to trades person. After a long week, it was the last thing we wanted to do.

While our costs (incl. mortgage) just about exceeded the rent, we were slowly acquiring an asset – we re-assured ourselves this was a good additional to our pension portfolio.

The joys of being a landlord: Then, in December 2020, the rent never landed in the account. When I called round to the house, I was surprised to meet 3 people I had not met before! Furthermore, the garden was like a junk yard (with too many mattresses to count).

What happened? The tenant’s family had returned home early in 2020 & he had been sub-letting the 3-bedroom house out. Of course, there was a clause in the contract about NOT sub-letting! Judging by the letters & number of mattresses, it was a high turnover rental! He took up residency in the front room, so he could rent out the 3 bedrooms. He took the deposit, collected the rent every month as well as money for bills. This was during the pandemic, so he & his wife (who left the country) were receiving the PUP as well. Then in December, he collected the rent & bill money and left to go back home. I was not paid nor were the bills.

The 3 individuals in the house were interesting characters with their own history of challenges but on the mend. The contribution of the 3 did not cover the agreed rent & they also had challenges with reliable income. There were also Covid rules in place about evictions. Rather than pushing hard on them (eviction via RTB, etc), we agreed that they would move on the coming months (3 months at the latest). I was weary they could just dig in & it could take a lot longer to evict them (even if the law was on myside). Fortunately, they all found alternative accommodation over the next 2 months.

Note: we did issue proceedings against the tenant through the RTB even though he had left the country. I wanted a paper trail just in case he returned & also to tell the story if the tax man ever asked.

By April, we were ready to put the house on the market & have just recently sold it in December. It cleared the mortgage, but we did lose out versus purchase price vs selling price. However, I will make full use of the capital losses when selling shares. Most importantly, it’s a relief to close out my career as an accidental landlord.

Observations / Learnings:

• We did visit the house occasionally but should have “inspected” the house fully at least every 6 months if not every 3-4 months. (My wife had visited the house in October due to an external issue relating to Irish Water but did not enter the house due to Covid risks).
• We should have increased the rent in line with market rates. We didn’t need the income, but when it came to selling the house, it ruled out landlords as potential buyers.
  • With selling a rental in mind, I wonder should I have (on paper) increased the rent on the RTB site to the maximum, without charging the tenant. On paper, this would have ensured landlords would be interested.
• Fortunately, I had created a paper trail with the RTB. When it came to selling the buyers, solicitors did enquire about rental status etc & it closed off the questions quickly.
• Selling a house can take time. Selling an old house can take even longer.
  • While we were compliant with planning rules & permissions granted, we had to go back for retention to ensure there was no issues ahead of buyer engineer assessment. Our engineer felt it was “just” within spec, but another engineer may not come to that conclusion. So, this took more time (& costs).
  • The buyer’s engineer required drains reports which unearthed a few issues that needed mitigation before the sale went through – that along took 5-6 weeks from drainage report to completion and more cost.
• The tracker mortgage made this financially feasible as an accidental landlord (we were slowly acquiring an asset over time). This is enabled by the low interests today. My father often shared stories with me about the double-digit interest rates % they paid in the 1980s. While a low probability event, the scenario of increasing interest rates was a concern of mine. So, one less worry…
• While the rental diversified our income, we are in a good position currently. So ok with living with the risk associated with being overly dependent on 2 salaries. May have come to a different conclusion if day job was not going so well.
• An important motivation for me is to simplify life (where I can). Retiring as a landlord means no more late-night calls & callouts, I can close one bank account (linked to the mortgage), simplify my tax returns, no longer need to log onto RTB website etc, etc… essentially less hassle in life. Can’t put a value on reduced hassle, but it’s worth a lot to me right now…

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Hi sm

What a well written story?

How much rent did you lose out on or did the deposit cover it?

Brendan

 

[The Horseman]

After nearly 10 years as an accidental landlord, I am happy to share I am out of the rental game. I'm not the only one heading for the exit judging by recent posts. After learning so much from this forum over the years, thought I would share my story & learnings along the way.

Some background: My then girlfriend (now wife) purchased a nice (small) house close to a city centre at the peak of the boom (4Q 2006). It was a lovely home. Then little people started to arrive & we quickly outgrew the house. Unfortunately, property prices collapsed & we couldn’t sell. So, we started our unplanned journey as a landlord in 2012…

Financially manageable but another job to be done: Thanks to the tracker mortgage, it was financially manageable. We didn’t raise the rent every year, so after +4 years with current tenant we were behind market rates. Furthermore, it was an old house. Thus, we typically got a call on cold, wet Friday nights that the boiler (or something else) had stopped working etc. We’re in the squeezed middle – busy with 3 kids and aging parents as well as a high-pressure job. So after a long week this was another ask / job to be done. While we outsourced most of the maintenance / fixes, we did initially call out to the house to understand the issue so we could explain to trades person. After a long week, it was the last thing we wanted to do.

While our costs (incl. mortgage) just about exceeded the rent, we were slowly acquiring an asset – we re-assured ourselves this was a good additional to our pension portfolio.

The joys of being a landlord: Then, in December 2020, the rent never landed in the account. When I called round to the house, I was surprised to meet 3 people I had not met before! Furthermore, the garden was like a junk yard (with too many mattresses to count).

What happened? The tenant’s family had returned home early in 2020 & he had been sub-letting the 3-bedroom house out. Of course, there was a clause in the contract about NOT sub-letting! Judging by the letters & number of mattresses, it was a high turnover rental! He took up residency in the front room, so he could rent out the 3 bedrooms. He took the deposit, collected the rent every month as well as money for bills. This was during the pandemic, so he & his wife (who left the country) were receiving the PUP as well. Then in December, he collected the rent & bill money and left to go back home. I was not paid nor were the bills.

The 3 individuals in the house were interesting characters with their own history of challenges but on the mend. The contribution of the 3 did not cover the agreed rent & they also had challenges with reliable income. There were also Covid rules in place about evictions. Rather than pushing hard on them (eviction via RTB, etc), we agreed that they would move on the coming months (3 months at the latest). I was weary they could just dig in & it could take a lot longer to evict them (even if the law was on myside). Fortunately, they all found alternative accommodation over the next 2 months.

Note: we did issue proceedings against the tenant through the RTB even though he had left the country. I wanted a paper trail just in case he returned & also to tell the story if the tax man ever asked.

By April, we were ready to put the house on the market & have just recently sold it in December. It cleared the mortgage, but we did lose out versus purchase price vs selling price. However, I will make full use of the capital losses when selling shares. Most importantly, it’s a relief to close out my career as an accidental landlord.

Observations / Learnings:

• We did visit the house occasionally but should have “inspected” the house fully at least every 6 months if not every 3-4 months. (My wife had visited the house in October due to an external issue relating to Irish Water but did not enter the house due to Covid risks).
• We should have increased the rent in line with market rates. We didn’t need the income, but when it came to selling the house, it ruled out landlords as potential buyers.
  • With selling a rental in mind, I wonder should I have (on paper) increased the rent on the RTB site to the maximum, without charging the tenant. On paper, this would have ensured landlords would be interested.
• Fortunately, I had created a paper trail with the RTB. When it came to selling the buyers, solicitors did enquire about rental status etc & it closed off the questions quickly.
• Selling a house can take time. Selling an old house can take even longer.
  • While we were compliant with planning rules & permissions granted, we had to go back for retention to ensure there was no issues ahead of buyer engineer assessment. Our engineer felt it was “just” within spec, but another engineer may not come to that conclusion. So, this took more time (& costs).
  • The buyer’s engineer required drains reports which unearthed a few issues that needed mitigation before the sale went through – that along took 5-6 weeks from drainage report to completion and more cost.
• The tracker mortgage made this financially feasible as an accidental landlord (we were slowly acquiring an asset over time). This is enabled by the low interests today. My father often shared stories with me about the double-digit interest rates % they paid in the 1980s. While a low probability event, the scenario of increasing interest rates was a concern of mine. So, one less worry…
• While the rental diversified our income, we are in a good position currently. So ok with living with the risk associated with being overly dependent on 2 salaries. May have come to a different conclusion if day job was not going so well.
• An important motivation for me is to simplify life (where I can). Retiring as a landlord means no more late-night calls & callouts, I can close one bank account (linked to the mortgage), simplify my tax returns, no longer need to log onto RTB website etc, etc… essentially less hassle in life. Can’t put a value on reduced hassle, but it’s worth a lot to me right now…

Delighted for you. Its not an easy environment to be a landlord now. It is not for everyone and not as easy as people think.

You can now get on with your life not having the headache/worry of being a landlord.

 

[sm7940333]

Hi sm

What a well written story?

How much rent did you lose out on or did the deposit cover it?

Brendan

Back in 2015, the deposit was €1,250. With rent at €1,250 per month, I would expect a rental income of €5,000 over 4 months. However, the actuals were €0 in December followed by a total of €2,050 over January to March – the 3 sub-letters were inconsistent at best in paying.

In April, while we were no longer landlords, we were still paying a mortgage of €923 per month until we sold it in December 2021.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

OK, so you got €3k instead of €5k for that period. Not good, but not the disaster other landlords have had.

Did it take from April to December to sell it? That is a long time which landlords tend not to factor into the equation when calculating returns.

Brendan

 

[sm7940333]

OK, so you got €3k instead of €5k for that period. Not good, but not the disaster other landlords have had.

Did it take from April to December to sell it? That is a long time which landlords tend not to factor into the equation when calculating returns.

Brendan

Got €2k instead of €5k. Agreed - not a disaster in terms of income. I also spent €4.5k on getting the house ready to sell (incl. painting, new carpets, tiling of ground floor bathroom). Some may question the "investment" but the selling price was better than others in the locality (but it's never an apples to apples comparison). Thus, the house was ready for someone to move (or rent out again if necessary). Then got hit with a €4.5k bill linked to drainage repairs after the buyers engineers inspection. Agreed we would fix that.

Re: time to sell... it was not quick & required a mortgage payment every month! Drainage issue cost us 5-6 weeks. Had a few bids then fell through. I have not sold a house before, so unsure of what is a "reasonable" timeline. Next time round (which there won't be), I would sort out planning & do a drainage test in advance to reduce the timeline!

In summary, from December 2020 to December 2021, we were unexpectedly down €3k in rent & had an unplanned €9k "investment" into the house while paying €11k mortgage. So to exit the landlord game cost us €23k - not entirely accurate when you consider tax, cashflow, reduced mortgage, etc but it feels like it was an expensive year. I've only realized the extend of how expensive it was now! Fortunately, we're in a good place in terms of salary etc otherwise that would have been a far more stressful year...

 

[sm7940333]

On replying to your question @Brendan Burgess , I was going through my excel files and had a reflection that I missed on my original post. By starting out on the journey as an accidental landlord, I also started on my journey for taking full ownership of my “financial management”. Until that point, I was “passive” in my approach. Money came in & money went out. I had a reasonable salary & I am typically frugal, so no issues with the approach. Since then, I am fully active & proactive in owning the “financial management” for my family.

Needless to say, I learned so much from this forum. But it’s not just the technical financial learnings I benefited from. It’s the role modelling of contributors that helped me to shift my mindset & take ownership of my financials. For that, I want to thank you all for helping me & also my family.

I appreciate I have not contributed to this site, but I have learned so much. I have “played it forward” by helping others (not via this forum). But going forward, I’m going to try to add value where I can on the forum.

 

[cremeegg]

I would suggest the €23k cost to exit is a bit overstated. Painting, tiling etc needs to be done though of course selling may have brought that forward. The fact that the sale process brought the drain issue to the fore may be seen as a benefit. It would have to be done at some time, and probably cheaper to do preventative work now than later when repairs as well might be needed.

It is also not clear if you made a profit in your 10 years as a landlord. You say that the costs exceeded the rent, but 'the costs' seem to include capital repayments on the mortgage.

 

[sm7940333]

Fair point @cremeegg - I may have been overly dramatic in how I positioned it. I think the takeaway for others is: if you are considering leaving the rental game (including selling the property) it is not a cost-free exit. It was a quick decision for us to sell up in December 2020, but it took us 12 months to execute that decision (including the "soft eviction" of illegal sub-letters to closing the sale). From a budgeting perspective, I did not plan for a €23k swing in my family P&L. We could cover it & were fine. But I appreciated not everyone can take that hit.

So my warning / learning for others is to plan & budget for it. The mortgage & associated selling costs (both planned & unexpected) need to be factored into your cashflow.

It is also not clear if you made a profit in your 10 years as a landlord. You say that the costs exceeded the rent, but 'the costs' seem to include capital repayments on the mortgage.

Good question - let me look at the numbers & get back to you on it.

 

[sm7940333]

It is also not clear if you made a profit in your 10 years as a landlord. You say that the costs exceeded the rent, but 'the costs' seem to include capital repayments on the mortgage.

So I've looked at my tax submissions notes from 2013 to 2021. As outlined below, my Taxable Income was €52k.

This excludes the capital mortgage payments. Current interest rate is @ 1.05%. My then girlfriend secured a 100% mortgage of €345k for 40 years back in 2006.

The €52k would be taxed at the highest effective tax rate: 52% (please correct me if I am wrong).

So my after-tax profit for 8 years was €25k or €3.1k per year (on average).

Interested to hear your thoughts on above approach, profitability, ROI?

Gross Rental Income	€108,450​
Allowable Expenses	€40,080​
Capital Expenses	€16,101​
Taxable Income	€52,269​

Note the above numbers are the sum of 8 years of tax submissions. If I summed up just 2020 & 2021, my Taxable Income would be -€682. So every bad tenancy is going to hit the profitability hard. The house & garden was thrashed & cost nearly €1k in clean up & waste removal alone. The Capital Expense tripled in 2021 vs 2020 due to full write off of items. I was lucky I discovered the state of the place in December 2020 so I have proof & can capture the impact in 2020 submission to offset against reasonable rental income for most of 2020. If it was in 2021, there was little rental income to offset it against.

 

[Baby boomer]

So, it looks like you made €25k after tax, plus tax-free capital appreciation of - I would guess - €100k+ between 2012 and today.

Not bad going and you certainly made lemonade from a bunch of lemons! Well done.

 

[cremeegg]

So I've looked at my tax submissions notes from 2013 to 2021. As outlined below, my Taxable Income was €52k.

I would call this a €52k profit, all profits are subject to tax.

This excludes the capital mortgage payments...My then girlfriend secured a 100% mortgage of €345k for 40 years back in 2006.

A €52k profit on an investment of nothing ! I tried to calculate the IRR on that but may calculator said 'error'

You lived in the house for 6 years, you made a profit of €52k (less the interest for the 6 years), and bear in mind that you bought at the top of the market. All for an investment of nothing. Well done Mrs. sm is all I can say.

And people say property investment is risky.

 

[Leper]

I'm glad SM7940333 agus a cailín turned a profit in dabbling in property rental. I dabbled in various types of home e.g. mobile-home, holiday home in Kerry, an apartment in Spain. I didn't turn a profit in any of them, but I had the experiences of people not paying, people moaning for ridiculous reasons and a humorous adventure in our small claims court. In a nutshell I was glad to sell the mobile home and holiday home. I'm not selling our Spanish property for many reasons. Our old mobile home had the other tenants of the mobile home park on my back to upgrade and the holiday home always had something going wrong with it and the journeys during Spring, Summer and Autumn just to cut the grass were trying. I was riding a loss for years and the last I needed were those lone journeys along the Wild Atlantic Way.

Back in the 1980's bricks-and-mortar was the way to go for the profit seeking investor. Property rental was easy back then and the market was short of tenants and a win/win for landlord and tenant was nearly always on. Back then it was easier to buy property too and landlord/tenant relationships were largely short term.

I am not fully au fait with what happened in the meantime. Was it that landlords got greedy? or Was it that tenants took bad landlords to task on various issues? or Was there something more sinister? But, when I see well healed tenants spending 25+ years in one property I ask myself questions.

The bottom line approaching 2022 is that landlords are happy to get out of the business and tenants are paying higher rent. Did we lose our direction somewhere along the way? We are now in a classic lose/lose situation and it appears things are going to get worse.

Back to the original post - Well written and apparently truthful and again I'm glad the OP got out ahead. The underlying message:- Current landlords will become more profit savvy and tenants will pay higher rent - a classic case of supply and demand - tenants are now about to endure the perfect storm.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Did he get out ahead?

€133k of a capital loss. Even if you allocate 40% of the loss to his period as an owner occupier, it's still about €70k capital loss as a landlord.

I doubt he made this up in net rent after tax and interest.

Brendan

 

[PebbleBeach2020]

As you say Leper, it's a really strange situation. Rents never been higher and yet landlords are fleeing from the sector. Two reasons as I see it.

Firstly, there's an unreal amount of accidental landlord from the last 10 - 15 years. The rising house prices over the last 5 years or so has now given these people the opportunity to get rid of a property and either clear the outstanding mortgage or else turn a small (or otherwise) profit. These people never wanted to be a landlord and in a lot of instances probably lived a fair distance away from the rental property, so when there was an issue, these people found it a pain in the backside to have to deal with it.

The other people are landlords happy to stay in the rental long term. Why are these people fleeing the rental game? I think they are leaving because of uncertainty. Nothing spreads like uncertainly in an investment scenario. You have Sinn Fein saying they would bring in a rent freeze for three years (when we could be looking at annual inflation of anything from 2 - 5%) and also introducing tenancy of indefinite duration without the right for a landlord to sell a property with vacant possession. This is absolutely crazy stuff. A landlord under a SF government, wanting to sell his property worth say €300,000 can only sell to an investor/landlord. He cannot selling to someone looking to live in the property himself. The price they will sell the property for may only be €200,000 so the landlord/investor is down €100,000. How is that fair??? As a result, these landlords know the rental income is fantastic and would gladly stay in the rental sector for years to come, but the uncertainty and threat from SF and the consequences of their policies is causing them to take the money and run now.

In time, SF probably will get into government. In time, they might bring in their proposal above. At that stage, the damage will be done. All the smaller landlords will be gone and all that will be left will be professional private landlords and corporate landlords with thousands of properties for rent. The market will be controlled by a small few and as a result, the rents that are going to be charged are going to continue to rise. With all the properties promised the only private sector ones making their way to the rental sector will be these corporate landlords.

I read that in 2017 there was 341,000 properties for rent in Ireland. Now there are 277,000, so a drop of 64,000 or nearly 20%. That's frightening really.

What SF are doing is actually ingenius by them in fairness when you look at it and understand their actions. They threaten actions that are forcing or motivating existing landlords to sell up and get out of the rental game. By doing so, rents are being driven upwards due to basic supply and demand laws of economics. The government are then getting it in the neck and getting lambasted for not doing enough to stop this. More kudos for SF even though they are contributing to the problem. Over the next three years, SF will drive more and more landlords out with their harsh, pro renter and 100% anti landlord proposals and suggestions. For renters, things are going to get a hell of a lot worse before they are going to get better (that is, if they ever get any better).

 

[PebbleBeach2020]

An interesting report:

https://www.rtb.ie/images/uploads/general/RTB_Small_Landlord_Report_July_2021.pdf

 

[cremeegg]

As you say Leper, it's a really strange situation. Rents never been higher and yet landlords are fleeing from the sector. Two reasons as I see it.

Firstly, there's an unreal amount of accidental landlord from the last 10 - 15 years. The rising house prices over the last 5 years or so has now given these people the opportunity to get rid of a property and either clear the outstanding mortgage or else turn a small (or otherwise) profit. These people never wanted to be a landlord and in a lot of instances probably lived a fair distance away from the rental property, so when there was an issue, these people found it a pain in the backside to have to deal with it.

The other people are landlords happy to stay in the rental long term. Why are these people fleeing the rental game? I think they are leaving because of uncertainty. Nothing spreads like uncertainly in an investment scenario. You have Sinn Fein saying they would bring in a rent freeze for three years (when we could be looking at annual inflation of anything from 2 - 5%) and also introducing tenancy of indefinite duration without the right for a landlord to sell a property with vacant possession. This is absolutely crazy stuff. A landlord under a SF government, wanting to sell his property worth say €300,000 can only sell to an investor/landlord. He cannot selling to someone looking to live in the property himself. The price they will sell the property for may only be €200,000 so the landlord/investor is down €100,000. How is that fair??? As a result, these landlords know the rental income is fantastic and would gladly stay in the rental sector for years to come, but the uncertainty and threat from SF and the consequences of their policies is causing them to take the money and run now.

In time, SF probably will get into government. In time, they might bring in their proposal above. At that stage, the damage will be done. All the smaller landlords will be gone and all that will be left will be professional private landlords and corporate landlords with thousands of properties for rent. The market will be controlled by a small few and as a result, the rents that are going to be charged are going to continue to rise. With all the properties promised the only private sector ones making their way to the rental sector will be these corporate landlords.

I read that in 2017 there was 341,000 properties for rent in Ireland. Now there are 277,000, so a drop of 64,000 or nearly 20%. That's frightening really.

What SF are doing is actually ingenius by them in fairness when you look at it and understand their actions. They threaten actions that are forcing or motivating existing landlords to sell up and get out of the rental game. By doing so, rents are being driven upwards due to basic supply and demand laws of economics. The government are then getting it in the neck and getting lambasted for not doing enough to stop this. More kudos for SF even though they are contributing to the problem. Over the next three years, SF will drive more and more landlords out with their harsh, pro renter and 100% anti landlord proposals and suggestions. For renters, things are going to get a hell of a lot worse before they are going to get better (that is, if they ever get any better).

It seems SF are running the country already.

 

[sm7940333]

I would call this a €52k profit, all profits are subject to tax.

A €52k profit on an investment of nothing ! I tried to calculate the IRR on that but may calculator said 'error'

You lived in the house for 6 years, you made a profit of €52k (less the interest for the 6 years), and bear in mind that you bought at the top of the market. All for an investment of nothing. Well done Mrs. sm is all I can say.

And people say property investment is risky.

A winning Investment: Yes - we made a €52k profit from renting over the years. Furthermore, from 2012 to 2021, the mortgage reduced by €77k (from €322k to €245k). So with a little spend every year, we were slowly acquiring a desirable asset (that will likely only go up in value in the long-term) & also be a pension for Mrs. SM7940333

An obvious mistake in selling up: So we originally purchased the house for €345k, enhanced the property with €55k (significant underestimate) & sold it for €300k. Taking into account purchase (€14k) & selling expenses (€9k), the capital loss is in the region of €123k

What were we thinking! If we stuck with it, the rent would continue to roll in every month & we would slowly acquire a nice asset outright. Alternatively, if we just waited a few more years (assuming prices continue to rise), we would move beyond negative equity & even make a capital gain!

So why sell? A key point is that we're (now) in a favorable position financially, so finance was not a driver to keep the property. Considerations were:
1) current (& future) risks associated with being a landlord in this country - this is discussed on other treads as well so I would get into here. If SF are to come to power & implement their policies, I would seriously consider relocating (Switzerland would be attractive for many reasons).
2) aging house - built in the 1930s, it is showing its age. I was surprised there was no issues with the roof from the buyers engineer report. When we renovated the house twice (say 15 & 11 years ago), we put a lot into it. Even that investment is aging... so expecting increasing bills & hassle going forward.
3) hassle of being a landlord - just as a reminder, I am an "accidental landlord" so it was not part of my strategic plan to take this on nor do I have the "best" skills/mindset to be a "hands on" landlord. Thus, every call / issue, is just hassle for me to resolve. Hassle also takes time as well as mental energy to resolve. There is also the "worry" that something else will go wrong (linked back to #2). I have a "busy" job (who doesn't) & usually travel internationally with it, so I do put a high-value on my time-off with my family.
4) opportunity cost (including my time) - so while it was generating €6k profit per year, that was not a big enough number for me to justify the hassle. For me, there are easier ways for me to make that money (also ways of work that I enjoy a lot more).